Although the Communist tyranny that rules North Korea officially insists it has absolutely zero cases of coronavirus infection, members of the ruling party have been admitting to select domestic audiences that cases began appearing near the borders in March and have been spreading in at least three regions of the country.
Radio Free Asia (RFA) on Friday quoted anonymous sources who related what officials of the Korean Workers’ Party have been saying when foreigners aren’t watching:
“[They] held a lecture session for all the residents titled ‘Let’s all work together on the coronavirus quarantine project to [successfully] implement the Supreme Leader’s policies,’” a resident in Ryanggang province, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal, told RFA’s Korean Service Thursday.
“The speaker at the lecture publicly stated that there were confirmed coronavirus patients among [the people],” the source added.
“They said that the [Korean Workers’] Party’s quarantine guidelines had not been implemented properly by us, and that this caused serious damage to the people’s economy,” the source said.
“The speaker appealed to us all to prevent [further] damage [to society] so we can together win the war against the coronavirus,” said the source.
RFA’s sources said these comments did not go over well with the audience, which pointed out as truculently as possible for the subjects of a murderous Communist regime that the official line has been zero infections thanks to the Party’s dazzling leadership, with copious boasting that North Korea handled the pandemic so much better than its richer, freer, and more technologically advanced neighbors to the south.
The most adventurous critics noted that revised claims of only a few infections in three specific areas are hard to believe because the three areas – Hamgyong in the north, Hwanghae in the south, and Pyongyang in the middle – are widely separated.
“If the virus spread from the northern end of the country to the southern end, it means it has to have spread across the entire country,” one of RFA’s sources reasoned.
The Party responded to this criticism by insisting that North Korea “has the most superior socialist healthcare system, making it the country with the fewest confirmed cases in the world,” even if the number of coronavirus infections is a bit higher than zero.
That reportedly did not help calm residents, either, according to RFA’s eyewitnesses:
“The lecturer told us we should be proud that we live in the country with the fewest confirmed coronavirus cases because of our socialist medical system and healthcare policies,” said the second source.
“They even told us that we should pledge our undying loyalty to our leader for providing us with such a great healthcare system,” the second source said.
The attendees in Pyongyang, however, did the exact opposite.
“They say that the Supreme Leader [Kim Jong Un] did nothing for residents who are struggling to make ends meet. They are criticizing the authorities for blaming the people for failing to implement the party’s quarantine guidelines [instead of themselves].”
International suspicion of Pyongyang’s highly improbable claim of zero infections has been fueled by North Korea taking some difficult-to-conceal steps toward mitigation, such as wearing facemasks and even suspending trade with China.
One hospital in Hamgyong – the northern province that North Korean officials are quietly admitting might have a few coronavirus cases – reportedly hastily cremated a large number of “pneumonia” patients and then scrubbed down the entire facility. Keen-eyed foreign observers noticed a spike in mysterious “pneumonia” deaths beginning in early February, often accompanied by curiously swift cremations.
The New York Times reported at the end of March that North Korea’s top virologists have been working overtime on tests for the virus that no one supposedly has. Some outside medical experts suspect Pyongyang has been maintaining the fiction of zero confirmed cases by refusing to test anyone but the inner circle of elites.
Test kits are reportedly one of the items most urgently requested by North Korean officials from humanitarian aid groups, while domestic garment factories have been spotted churning out protective masks instead of clothing, another clue that the regime doesn’t really believe it has no infections to worry about.
Rare unauthorized video clips shot in the hinterlands show North Korean villages that certainly seem to believe they are fighting a major viral outbreak:
A red wooden marker on a sidewalk covered with a dirty slush of ice said “disinfection station,” according to a clip, which was smuggled to the Rev. Kim Seung-eun, a human rights activist in South Korea, and viewed by The New York Times. A lone official in a green plastic suit with a tank of disinfecting liquid on his back stood idly. A silver van raced through the town blaring the importance of wearing masks.
In another clip, a sign saying “Quarantined” was stuck on the door of what looked like a tenement house where Reverend Kim said people with possible symptoms were kept.
Reverend Kim said one of his North Korean contacts had been unable to return home for a month after visiting another town because the government controlled internal movement. Such restrictions were needed for disease control because of North Korea’s crowded public transportation network.
U.S. military officials in South Korea noted that the North’s massive military went on lockdown from February to March, and North Korean border posts visibly implemented the same kind of coronavirus precautions as most countries hit by the Wuhan virus.
Then there is the curious condition of dictator Kim Jong-un, whose health has been the subject of much speculation recently. Kim has dropped out of sight a few times during the pandemic, most notably during the birthday celebration for his late father Kim Jong-il, which is regarded as a major holiday in North Korea. Several events coinciding with Kim Jong-il’s birthday were ultimately canceled altogether. Some South Korean papers have speculated Kim disappeared while fleeing from coronavirus outbreaks.